


Belonging

by MeinongsJungleBook



Series: In which Windblade, Starscream and Bumblebee share a shamelessly sugary Happily Ever After together because no force in the universe can stop me [1]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Alienation, Angst, Cutesy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Fix-It, Flirting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Happy Relationships, Humor, I bear no responsibility for any cavities gained while reading this fic, Insecurity, Love, Multi, Non-Explicit Sex, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Robot Sex, Stress, Threesome, Understanding, Worldbuilding, happiness, pdas, playfulness, reassurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 22:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19327750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeinongsJungleBook/pseuds/MeinongsJungleBook
Summary: Windblade finds where she fits into Starscream and Bumblebee's relationship.





	Belonging

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Starbee Week prompt "OT3+".
> 
> If John Barber won't give these characters the ending they deserve, I will.

Windblade didn’t realise how hard Starscream’s death had hit her until weeks after the event. As ruler of a planet that as of very recently no longer existed, she had been inundated with responsibilities that had exhausted her mental and emotional energy. She’d had to organise a census of the survivors, negotiate where they could settle on a planet inhabited by life forms that were ambivalent towards them at the very best, arrange funerals for the masses of dead, and that was just her first day as the post-Unicron ruler of what remained of her species. She was so busy dealing with what the traumatic, apocalyptic, literally world-shattering event meant for the people she was responsible for that she had no time to process how it had impacted her personally.

As she went through the census data and the funeral arrangements, the enormity of the amount of death and loss that had occurred hit her, but she had no time to process her grief, instead she had to swallow her feelings and be strong for the people that needed practical action in the aftermath of the tragedy. When at last her responsibilities let up enough to allow her a little time alone with her thoughts, the realisation of the extent of what she had lost hit her like a tidal wave and her legs had grown weak beneath her. Caminus – both the world she’d called home for thousands of years and the Titan who had loved and nurtured her people – had been lost, and that was almost too huge for her to comprehend. Sites of profound cultural, historical and holy significance, along with the beautiful ancient architecture and iconic Camien art and artefacts found there, had been turned to slag within minutes. Places of similarly profound personal significance to Windblade – the auditorium where she’d performed _Solus’s Sight_ , the bar where she and her friends had taken breaks from their studies, the arena where she’d won her first accolade, the hilltop where she’d recited the Oath of Constancy – these were now gone forever as well.

Most Camiens had survived the disaster, but some hadn’t, and Windblade knew everyone on Caminus to some extent, and every Camien death had hurt her to some degree. She even mourned the Mistress of Flame, despite how strained their relationship had been towards the end. Then there were the Cybertronians and other colonists that had been lost, some of which she’d grown close to over the years since she’d set off from Caminus, all of which she’d had some measure of responsibility for. And amongst them was Starscream. Strange as it was to finally acknowledge, Starscream was ultimately the non-Caminen she had been closest to. There was Metroplex of course, whom she loved dearly, but it could sometimes be hard to personally relate to an entity as vast, ancient, and sacred as a Titan. Admittedly, her time spent battling Vigilem had altered her perception of Titans as a whole somewhat – in many ways he had been as petty and narrow-minded as any normal bot – but she still had a hard time viewing Metroplex as something other than a being so far beyond her.

A year ago, she might have either laughed or felt mildly nauseous at the notion that she’d ever consider Starscream at all relatable, but it was surprising how much could change in just a year. It wasn’t that she’d come to see him as a kindred spark or anything like that, in so many ways they had been complete polar opposites, but she’d come to see him for the complex person that he was, with strengths and failings, and she’d seen herself reflected back in some of his facets. He’d been such a major part of her life since she’d left Caminus; so many of the intense experiences she’d had during that period of her life had involved Starscream, and it was hard to avoid some sort of bond arising out of such circumstances, as strange and ambivalent as that bond may be. The simplest way to describe the relationship she’d had with Starscream was just to say that it was complicated. They were enemies yet allies; he’d threatened her life yet also saved it on multiple occasions; he’d been this unpredictable, dangerous presence, like an unstable explosive, but he’d also become the most constant and familiar figure in that stage of her life. She wouldn’t go so far as to say that made him a comforting presence, but in a very strange way he was there for her, and in the end, he was the one who came through for her.

Her feelings towards him had become far more positive in the last few months of his life, which made them ambivalent overall, because they’d had a very low place to work their way up from, and even at the very end he’d _vexed_ her to put it kindly. But then she’d heard that he’d sacrificed his life to save them all, and that news had hit her with a barrage of emotions she didn’t even know how to name. She didn’t have time to examine her feelings at that point, and it was only later that she came to realise how much of hole he had left behind now that he was gone. She was surprised at exactly how much she found herself missing him – certainly, he had been a major figure in the most recent years of her life, yet that was still such a tiny sliver of the millennia that made up her existence – but then, he did always have a tendency to surprise her. 

The years she had known him had been intense and hugely transformative for her, so maybe that was why he’d made such a deep impression on her despite knowing her for such a relatively brief time. Maybe the pain she felt over his death was also in part due to the knowledge of the potential he’d had that would now never be realised. She had seen what he could be, and while he was possibly closer to that version of himself than he’d ever been before when he died, it still hurt to know that he could now never fully become who he should have been and live his life as the best and truest version of himself. It could also be that her pain was partially because when Starscream had died he’d taken the answers to so many unanswered questions with him. Windblade had been inside his mind and seen his truth, and yet so many things about him had remained mysterious. She had been told that his last words had been about her, and that had left her with a flurry of confused emotions, but it also made her realise that she wanted to know exactly what she meant to him, something she’d now never be able to find out.

Then again, maybe she’d be able to learn some details after all. Of all Starscream’s surprises, one of the most surprising was the revelation that his delusions hadn’t been delusions at all. After reeling from her initial shock, Windblade had almost felt guilty to learn that all the time she’d assumed Starscream had been hallucinating he really had been talking to the invisible and intangible Bumblebee, but honestly, how could she have ever known? When she’d had the opportunity to meet the now visible and tangible Bumblebee, she’d had to bite her tongue to stop a deluge of questions pouring out of her, and she’d had to bite down harder when he’d given her a knowing look conveying fondness and familiarity. When they spoke, he seemed excited to talk to her, much as though they’d already met as faceless pseudonyms on a forum and forged a friendship from text, and after years were now finally meeting face-to-face.

She’d heard a few things about him in her time on Cybertron, and the main things she’d gathered were that he had been very well-liked among the Autobots, but not so popular and successful as a leader. When she got talking with him, doing her best not bombard him with the endless questions that burned inside her, she quickly started to understand why so many Autobots had considered him a friend; he had a gentle, kindly warmth that put her instantly at ease with him. After only five minutes of discussion she felt like she was talking to someone she’d known for years, although she supposed that from his perspective that was precisely what was happening. 

She felt as though she should have been a bit creeped out at the revelation that for all that time there had been an invisible bot watching her, but she just couldn’t bring herself to find anything about Bumblebee creepy. In fact, after Starscream died, she found knowing that Bee had been there throughout her and Starscream’s relationship comforting, like Bee was a surviving piece of that familiar and surprisingly important thing which she had lost. That being said, Bumblebee was an extremely different bot from who Starscream had been, one that she had a much, _much_ easier time getting along with. However, she did notice that, undoubtedly owing to all the time they had been forced to spend together, Bee had picked up some of Starscream’s subtle mannerisms, and every now and then he would come out with something a bit snarky that reminded her of Starscream’s sass, though Bee was never as cruel. It further comforted her that some of those little aspects of Starscream lived on, and it made her wonder if Starscream had also rubbed off on her at all as well.

Windblade had found herself telling Bee her intimate thoughts and feelings within only a couple of days of having properly met him, and in the aftermath of Unicron he was one of the people who supported her the most, both practically and emotionally. She couldn’t recall ever becoming so close to someone so quickly before, at least without the involvement of direct mental patching. Then again, she’d never had a relationship that had involved years of ghostly observation prior to proper introductions before. She’d made Bumblebee one of her chief ambassadors, and for all his alleged incompetence as leader of Cybertron, he was _supernaturally_ exceptional in his new role, and she found herself so thankful to have him around as both a friend and member of her staff.

When they’d first had the chance to talk, Starscream had become the subject of their conversation almost immediately. Given how much there was to say, they’d barely scratched the surface of that particular topic during that discussion, and then they’d had to deal with Unicron and its aftermath, which gave them little time to say the things that really wanted to be said. In the moments Windblade did get a chance to talk to Bee about Starscream, it became clear to her that the two of them had become extremely close. That was completely unsurprising; she’d managed to become oddly close to Starscream in the time she’d known him, and she hadn’t been there besides him almost every moment as audience to his innermost thoughts. She realised that on the occasion she did have access to Starscream’s innermost thoughts, the shade of Bumblebee had been the first figure to emerge when she’d called upon the phantoms of the people who had left their impact on Starscream’s spark. Admittedly, she’d thought she’d had a lot to do with Starscream’s change of spark towards the end of his life, but she now had to assume that Bee would have had an even greater influence upon him.

After Starscream’s death, particularly as she came to realise exactly how much pain his loss had caused her, Windblade wondered how bad it would have to be for Bumblebee. As she arranged funerals for the many lives lost to Unicron, and ways of honouring the heroes that had been responsible for its defeat, she considered how exactly Starscream’s loss and sacrifice should be treated. He was a controversial figure to say that least, but he was also the reason they were all still alive. She was afraid that a large, public funeral would attract discontents who would create a scene, but it really didn’t feel right to do nothing for him, so in the end she resolved to hold a service for those who had really known him. Ultimately that was mainly just herself, Bumblebee, Thundercracker and Skywarp. For a brief second she had considered whether she should offer some temporary parole to Megatron to allow him to attend, but she quickly quashed that notion. When she’d had the chance to speak to him following his return with the Lost Light, he’d seemed reasonable and repentant, and he’d received news of Starscream’s death with sadness and regret. But as she had looked at him, Windblade couldn’t help but think of the sadistically smiling form Vigilem had taken that had left Starscream paralysed with fear. She’d decided that Megatron had no place at Starscream’s funeral.

It was really more of a wake than a funeral, as there were no speeches, but rather just a discussion amongst those who attended. Windblade had given her honest thoughts and feelings on the deeply flawed, extremely complex person Starscream had been, and the strange bond the two of them had formed. Skywarp seemed more interested in offering up snide and bitter remarks than anything else, but eventually, after a couple of drinks, he started to recount some amusing, and somewhat fond anecdotes from his and Starscream’s history together. Thundercracker was a strange bot, who had some pretty strange things to say, but amongst all his oddness there was a weird wisdom and profundity of emotion to his words. Ultimately Bumblebee’s reminiscing was the warmest and most affectionate; he didn’t have any illusions as to who Starscream had been, but when he spoke about his flaws he was understanding of them, and he had the most to say about Starscream’s better qualities. 

After the funeral, Windblade and Bumblebee remained behind to continue talking about the bot who’d had such a singular impact on their lives. As Bumblebee spoke about Starscream, it became even clearer how intensely close the two of them had become in their time together, and how deeply Bumblebee had grown to care for his former enemy. Windblade couldn’t help but develop the sneaking suspicion that Bee might have even fallen in love with Starscream. Then again, as fondly as Bee spoke of him, he also didn’t seem _that_ upset that Starscream was now dead, so perhaps not. On the other hand, Bumblebee was a veteran from a four million year war, so he’d probably become very adept at dealing with grief, even over the loss of people he loved.

“And of course, he absolutely adored you,” Bee mentioned as he smiled at her fondly.

Windblade blinked, “He what?”

Bumblebee gave her a look of somewhat weary amusement, “Come on, you _must_ have realised,” he said, practically chiding her.

Windblade had known that Starscream must have felt something positive for her given that he had risked his life to save hers and then entrusted Cybertron to her, but she never would have thought those feelings would extend to anything that could be described as adoration, “But…but he always went on about how much I irritated him, and when he didn’t act like I was a nuisance he treated me like a threat!”

“This is Starscream we’re talking about,” Bee said flatly, before his fond, amused smile returned. “Yeah he thought you were annoying, but since being irritating is the closest thing he understands-I mean, understood to being affectionate, finding someone annoying was basically his prerequisite to being friends with them. And the fact he considered you a threat just meant he thought you were competent. He also thought you were fascinating, insightful, intelligent, and well, the other nice things he said about you he said as though they were insults, but I could tell that he was starting to reconsider whether the things he thought were your weaknesses were actually strengths. When he thought you were dead he was the most miserable I’ve ever seen him, and that’s saying a lot. And before when he realised you’d successfully seized Carcer I saw him smile like I’ve never seen him smile before.” 

Windblade took a moment to process this; while she had considered Starscream one of her worst enemies, he had apparently been thinking of her as one of his closest friends. It was simultaneously hilarious and incredibly sad to think about. Windblade wanted to ask Bee a billion questions about the matter, but she didn’t know where to start. As she looked at Bee, trying to figure out what to say, she couldn’t help but notice something a little weird about his mannerisms; for a start, he looked like he was trying to suppress laughter. She supposed that he saw the funny side to her obliviousness to Starscream’s affection for her, but he really looked like he was having an increasingly hard time not breaking down in hysterics, and she didn’t see how it was _that_ funny. He also seemed distracted; his optics kept flitting away from her to the empty space besides them, and each time they did so he seemed to be finding it more difficult to suppress his laughter, until he was shamelessly grinning while staring at nothing. He even flinched away from that direction at one point, although as he did so his grin just widened even more. In confusion, Windblade glanced over to where he was looking, but there was indeed nothing there.

After that, Windblade realised that hadn’t been the first time she’d noticed Bumblebee acting a little weird, and from that point on she started noticing more and more odd behaviours from him, all of which reminded her of something. It wasn’t long before she realised what his strangeness was reminiscent of – in certain ways he was exhibiting the same sort of signs of what they’d all assumed to be madness that Starscream used to show. The implication of that realisation hit her with another tidal wave of emotions she couldn’t completely process there on the spot. But she didn’t want to jump to conclusions, she’d need more evidence. 

As skeevy as it made her feel, she found herself...not _spying_ on Bumblebee, but doing things like dawdling outside doorways after he’d thought that she and anybody else had moved on, to listen in on the one-sided conversations he apparently had when he thought he was alone. She also asked other people he spent time with if they’d noticed any odd behaviour from him at all, and after she brought it up they realised that _yeah_ , he _had_ been acting a bit weird, hadn’t he? A lot of them chalked it up to the time he’d spent in Infraspace leaving him little loopy, but Windblade had another theory. She also just paid a lot more attention to Bee’s subtle little mannerisms when he was around, noticing all the little signs that he was distracted by what appeared to be nothing at all. Pretty soon, Windblade was convinced.

One day, after she was done debriefing Bumblebee in her office, she finished up with a final question, “So, were you ever planning on telling me that Starscream is alive and invisibly following you everywhere you go?”

Bumblebee’s optics widened for moment, before he just looked embarrassed, “Keeping it a secret was Starscream’s idea,” he said wearily. “We were intending to tell you.”

Windblade felt her spark pulse with pure joy at the confirmation of what she’d come to believe, but then she felt it flare with anger, “But not before I _held a funeral for him?_ ”

Bumblebee shuffled awkwardly, “He wanted to hear what you all had to say about him,” he said as he glanced at her apologetically, looking as though he was well aware that wasn’t anywhere near a good excuse.

“And I guess hearing me pour my spark out wasn’t enough for him?” Windblade said, finding herself growing more furious as she remembered how enraging Starscream so often had been, while the thought that Bumblebee would help him deceive her added an extra layer of betrayal to her anger. “You two decided to see how long I would grieve before revealing your big surprise?”

Now Bumblebee was looking deeply guilty, although he wasn’t looking at her – his gaze was fixed at her side, slightly above her eye level, and seemed to be communicating that what he was looking at should be feeling guilty too.

Windblade carried on, although now she sounded simply hurt rather than angry, “I’ve heard about all the research you’ve been doing in your spare time, and all the questions you’ve been asking – you’re trying to figure out how to bring him back, aren’t you? I could’ve been helping you, _why didn’t you tell me?_...don’t you trust me?”

Bumblebee’s attention was all on her now, “Windblade no, please don’t think that! You’re one of the people I trust the most, and you’re the only other person that Starscream trusts at all, it’s just...” he paused for a moment as he tried to find a way to explain, “...after we realised we were together again, we were so happy that we had a second chance that we just wanted to enjoy being together for a while without all the drama that telling everyone would inevitably bring. I’m so sorry Windblade, I don’t think we ever intended to drag things out this long, and we really should have thought more about what you were going through. You’re one of people we should have told from the start.”

Windblade calmed down somewhat; given how much stress Starscream had been under seemingly every moment he was alive, and all the commotion that would unavoidably arise when the word got out that he _still_ alive, she could understand why he’d want some time to enjoy being ‘dead’. And why should she expect the special privilege of being let in on his secret? Sure, she was closer to him than most, but clearly not on the same level of intimacy he had with Bumblebee. She did feel that as the one Bee reported to, he had failed some kind of responsibility to keep her informed, but on the other hand it’s not as though this situation had a wealth of precedents to set a standard for how it should be handled. This whole thing was clearly something that Bee viewed as deeply personal, and it wasn’t as though she expected the people who worked for her to tell her the details of their personal lives. Well, what ultimately mattered was that she knew now, “What have you learned about bringing him back?” she asked.

It felt a little hypocritical, but she saw the value in keeping Starscream’s survival a secret from most people. After all, he hadn’t been the most popular guy ever, and even after he’d seemingly sacrificed himself for their survival, the news that Windblade was trying to bring him back would undoubtedly prompt some people to ask ‘ _why bother?’_. Figuring out how to return him to the land of the living was going to be hard enough without any discontents trying to sabotage the process, so she kept it a secret project. The lead scientists involved knew what they were trying to do, but they were instructed to keep the exact purpose of their work on the down-low. After facing Windblade’s outrage, Bumblebee felt guilty enough to tell Thundercracker, at which point Windblade argued they’d also be obliged to tell Skywarp, and then the two Seekers each told their human partners, but beyond that the news didn’t seem to spread any further. 

Being in on Bumblebee and Starscream’s secret was...a profoundly weird experience. She now knew that Starscream was there, but she still couldn’t see or hear him, and when she was ‘alone’ with Bee he’d now much more openly act as though he was with two people, reacting both physically and verbally to what looked to Windblade like empty space, and it was so very odd. Bee would often pass along what Starscream was supposedly saying, but the cheeky look he would sometimes give to the air gave her the impression that he was occasionally misrepresenting what Starscream was actually saying to her in order to mess with him. Bee seemed really happy to be able to now openly talk and laugh with both of them, but his joy over their new circumstances appeared to be making him a bit oblivious to how weird it was for her, and perhaps for Starscream as well. She felt a bit like she was out on a date with a good friend who was introducing her to another of their good friends, and who was so excited to have both of their friends together that they hadn’t noticed that they weren’t really gelling with each other. Only in this case it wasn’t because she and Starscream didn’t get along, it was because she didn’t even know where he was standing at any one moment. 

Honestly though, she preferred it when Bee was around, because at least then she knew that Starscream was probably there. Now whenever she was alone, she felt her plating prickle at the thought that Starscream might be watching her any moment. Every time she made some kind of clumsy or embarrassing mistake in private, she couldn’t help but imagine he was there somewhere in the room making fun of her for it. She assumed that Bumblebee kept an eye on him and didn’t let him just wander around and spy on people at his leisure...or least she certainly hoped so. Still, once or twice she did tell the empty air to slag off – just in case. 

Eventually she managed to somewhat adapt to their very strange situation; she became less focused on how weird and awkward it was that Bee was laughing at something said by someone in the room she couldn’t see or hear, and more focused on how lucky and joyous it was that they could happily laugh together at all. Not only would it have once been inconceivable because of the whole either Bumblebee or Starscream being dead thing, but also because there had once been so much enmity amongst them that the idea that the three of them could ever gather to enjoy one another’s company as friends would have seemed ridiculous. The whole situation was bizarre in so many ways, but ultimately it was a good kind of weird. Windblade imagined that it would have to get frustrating for Starscream being unable to be seen or heard by anyone but Bee, so she tried to talk to him directly when she could, even though she felt a bit silly addressing the empty space where he was apparently standing. She also had the strong suspicion that Starscream was laughing at her and probably moving somewhere else every time she tried. 

As she was now able to more freely observe Bumblebee and Starscream’s relationship – or Bumblebee’s side of it anyway – it became obvious to her that she had been right in her earlier suspicions that Bumblebee had fallen for Starscream. She’d definitely never seen anyone stare at nothing with such utter adoration before, that was for sure. She could only assume Starscream was returning the loving look (as hard as that was for her to visualise), because it was hard for her to imagine anyone not falling for someone as sweet, charming and genuine as Bumblebee when he offered them such deep and honest love. It made Windblade’s spark glow with happiness to know that after all the loneliness and misery Starscream had lived through, he now had someone who loved him so completely. And Bumblebee seemed to know better than anyone what he was getting himself into, so at least there was that.

It took almost a year to figure out how to bring Starscream back to the physical world, and when he woke up in a fresh frame, Windblade was there standing over him with a warm smile and the strangest sense of affection for a bot with whom her relationship had only ever grown stranger. As if their bond hadn’t already been weird enough back before Starscream’s ‘death’, they’d now spent close to a year together where Windblade just had to take Bumblebee’s word for it that Starscream was present at all. Seeing Starscream actually lying there on the medical slab was surreal, almost like she hadn’t actually fully believed he’d really been there all that time until that moment. 

When Starscream looked at her looking back at him, he gave her the most fond and genuine smile she ever remembered getting from him, but then he quickly became distracted by the canister of energon she offered him, which he gulped down with the desperation of, well, someone who hadn’t refuelled in a year. Then he wanted to know where Bumblebee was, and once Windblade had confirmed with the attendant medic that Starscream’s life signs were stable enough to handle excitement, she allowed the practically vibrating Bumblebee in the room and quickly gave them their privacy. She assumed that the amount of frustration they’d developed over the years while shades at each other’s sides would take a good few hours – or perhaps days – to work through. She just hoped neither of them died all over again in the process.

When Starscream and Bumblebee were together after that there was no doubt their adoration was completely mutual. Windblade had never before seen Starscream showing a tiny fraction of the happiness he shone with now, and was almost as bizarre as it was beautiful. The two of them were shameless in their affection for each other; when they were together they were unfailingly touching each other in some way, whether they were holding hands, leaning against each other, or Starscream was getting daringly touchy in public, which Bee would chide him for. He always reprimanded him with a giggle however, and a look that seemed to promise that they’d pick up that train of thought again later. Given how long they’d been denied the chance to touch one another it was understandable that they’d take and relish every opportunity to be in physical contact. There was also a degree of possessiveness and protectiveness to the way Starscream draped himself over Bee, like he was subtly promising a galaxy of pain to anyone who so much considered taking or hurting his beloved. He was also clearly flaunting their relationship, because he was Starscream, as much as somethings change, some things never do. Some of Bumblebee’s friends were a bit shocked to find exactly how close he and Starscream had become, to say the least, but most of them came to accept it, even if they still weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea.

There were some people unhappy to learn that Starscream wasn’t dead after all, but Windblade argued that after the sacrifice he’d made to save them all from Unicron, and the deprivation he’d experienced while trapped in Infraspace, he’d earned another chance outside of prison. She also made sure to keep him busy so he wouldn’t have a chance to get into _too much_ trouble, and to keep him away from the people she thought were most likely to cause trouble for him. Now that Starscream was no longer an invisible, intangible phantom, he couldn’t lend those unique abilities to help Bumblebee in his duties as ambassador anymore, so that supernatural edge to Bumblebee’s diplomatic talents was taken off, but Bee still remained outstanding at his job by any reasonable standards. Also, whilst being able to phase through walls and listen in completely unseen by people was most definitely useful for a spy, Starscream had many other talents, most of which worked best when he could be seen and heard. She sent them out on missions, sometimes together, sometimes apart, where they could each apply their unique set of talents to tasks they were best suited to, and they both proved to be among her very best agents. 

She had been hesitant to send them on any missions together, given how deeply emotionally involved they were with one another, but there were some assignments that suited both their respective talent sets too well not to send them both out. She then found that they typically performed better when they worked together, and the more times they were sent out as a team, the more they seemed to figure out how to best coordinate their skills, until they were approaching that same degree of supernatural competence they had during Starscream’s ghostly phase. Windblade found herself wondering what kind of Cybertron she would have arrived to if Bumblebee and Starscream had realised how well they could have worked together if they really tried back before she’d shown up.

While any relationship had its dramas, which applied doubly so for relationships involving Starscream, overall Bumblebee and Starscream worked together incredibly well, in more ways than one. Windblade wasn’t sure whether to expect an invitation to a conjunx endura ceremony any day now, or to just assume they’d already done everything on the sly because even Starscream was too eager to bother with the complications of public celebration. She found their bond fascinating and, in a way, enchanting. She thought about what they went through together and the depth of intimacy that such an experience must have created; Starscream had been so reticent to trust anyone or allow them to help him; he’d kept any vulnerable feelings deeply buried, and he’d been so very, very lonely. The inexplicable link between him and Bee had put Bumblebee in an entirely unique position that helped him circumvent Starscream’s emotional defences to see what lay beneath his mask, giving Starscream someone he could finally share his most vulnerable thoughts and feelings with. Bumblebee saw a bot known for his deceptiveness at his most raw and honest, and saw someone worth his love. 

Now that Windblade could actually see and hear Starscream, and thereby interact with him properly, spending time with him and Bumblebee became far more fun. She was finally able to honestly laugh along with the jokes they were sharing, and probably follow and engage in their conversations. She’d found a way to enjoy their company before, but it was so much better now, and they quickly became some of her favourite people to spend time with. On the days where she found being a leader especially stressful and isolating, she tended to prefer their company the most, because they had each been in the same position, so they could best relate to that aspect of her life. They were there for her to bounce ideas off of and offer advice when she got stuck, and because they came from two very different philosophical backgrounds, they gave her a healthy spread of different outlooks. While they were officially her agents, she unofficially considered them her advisors, not to mention some of her closest and dearest friends.

Her relationship with Starscream in particular was in an exceedingly better place than it had ever been when he was alive the first time. Bumblebee had helped make him a much better person, and in the process, made him a much easier person to get along with. He hadn’t been transformed into something unrecognisable, but rather the negative traits that had once overwhelmed him and been incredibly harmful to both himself and those around him had been turned way down, so that were much easier to deal with. Meanwhile, the positive traits Windblade had seen occasionally peak through his façade before were now able to break through to the surface and flourish. 

Their relationship hadn’t completely changed either – they still bickered and he still managed to drive her mad sometimes, but the vast majority of the real hostility between them had dissipated. He rarely said anything to intentionally hurt her, and when he did do so, whether by accident or by intent, he was remorseful (he had absolutely no remorse when it came to irritating her however). Whereas once they’d had disagreements and differences that had seemed insurmountable, now a lot of the things that caused friction between them were the things that helped make their relationship interesting. Windblade also started to realise that they had much more in common than had originally been apparent to her; whereas once Starscream had seemed like her polar opposite, the more she got to know him better, the more he seemed simply like a darker shade of herself.

Windblade was truly grateful to have Starscream and Bumblebee around as more and more people endeavoured to make her job difficult. In the aftermath of Unicron, Windblade had put her all into helping build a new society, and now that things had settled down somewhat, some people had decided to claim that the level of direct involvement she’d been having was a sign of dictatorial tendencies. Windblade was prone to doubts about her own motivations and fears that she might be seduced by power, but even she was outraged at the suggestion that actually doing her job following a disaster of apocalyptic scale made her a dictator. Still, given that she’d already done what she needed to do to get her people back on track after the trauma of Unicron, she performed a restructuring of the government to put any accusations of tyrannical aspirations to rest. While she ultimately remained the leader, authority had been much more broadly spread throughout The Council. One of the side effects of the restructuring was that Bumblebee and Starscream no longer directly reported to her; she could still arrange to have them sent out on missions, but she no longer had ultimate authority over them.

“Well I did say that you wouldn’t even try to conquer the place,” Starscream sighed in (mostly) mock disappointment after the new power structure was officially put into place. The two of them stood on the balcony of Windblade’s apartment, overlooking their settlement on Earth.

“I’m sorry that we can’t all get on your level when it comes to vaulting ambitions,” Windblade replied in the same teasing manner.

“True, not everyone has the same capacity for a grand vision,” Starscream said smirking. “Still, there are upsides to your uninspiring choices I suppose; you have far more romantic options now anyway. Not that we Decepticons ever really considered that sort of thing to be much of an issue – fragging the boss was as legitimate a way to get ahead as any other, and even the Autobots lost their aversion to inter-rank relationships as the war dragged on. But I gather that some of you colonists still have some sort of silly ethical squeamishness about all that.”

Windblade chortled, that thought hadn’t even crossed her processor, “Well if I want to take full advantage of the new status quo I suppose I should start looking for a conjunx immediately,” she joked.

Starscream’s smirk widened so that he was making that face he made whenever he got One Of His Ideas, before he gently bumped his frame up against hers and nuzzled his face against the crook of her neck, “Well that was a short search,” his words came out muffled against her shoulder.

Windblade let out a squawk of laughter as she put her hands against his frame to both gently push him away but then hold him in place close to her as she played along, “Ah of course,” she said with a playful grin, “the obvious choice.”

Starscream’s optics sparkled with mischief and something else Windblade couldn’t quite place as he said, “The obviously best choice; admit it, no one else would keep things as interesting for you, and you need to be kept...stimulated.”

Windblade lightly smacked him on the shoulder in response to his innuendo and said, “You really need to learn the difference between interesting and stressful. You, _dearest_ , are the number one stressor in my life.”

“Then let me make up for it by being your number one destressor,” he said as he cupped her cheek and gazed at her intently, “I promise that I can wind you down just as effectively as I wind you up.”

Windblade froze as she started to get the distinct impression that they weren’t playing anymore, or at least not the game she originally thought they were. Starscream often said things that sounded a bit suggestive and flirty, but Windblade had thought that was just the way he was. However, as she looked into his intent gaze, she realised that his optics were burning with lust. Windblade was... _excited_. But then she took his hand and removed it from her cheek and stepped back, “I have to recharge,” she told him. “Alone,” she quickly added as she stepped through the doorway leading inside.

Windblade heard Starscream transform and fly off as she tried to process what had just happened. She couldn’t deny that some part of her had been thrilled by Starscream’s advances, but that feeling had very quickly been replaced by disgust at the thought that Starscream would betray Bumblebee after all Bee done for him and all they’d been through, and jeopardise the beautiful and singular thing they had. Then again, Windblade considered, it was entirely possible that they had an open relationship, but she certainly wouldn’t want to do anything without knowing for sure. She then tried to figure out what she was more unsettled by – the idea that Starscream might betray Bumblebee, or the fact that Starscream’s potential betrayal of Bee seemed to be the main thing stopping her from agreeing to a tryst with him, as opposed to just the fact that he was _Starscream_.

Windblade wasn’t sure whether to tell Bumblebee about what had happened or to confront Starscream for an explanation, but Bee was the first one she ran into the next day. He seemed even brighter and bouncier than normal, and Windblade didn’t want to run the risk of bringing down what seemed to be his very good mood by mentioning what had happened. She almost always enjoyed Bee’s company immensely, but today everything about what made him so likeable and fun to be around seemed amplified. He was full of positive energy, nice things to say about her, playful jokes, and warm, affectionate smiles. There was also...something else about the way he was behaving wasn’t so typical, or at least not typical to the way he usually acted around her. It took her longer than she would have liked to admit to tune into the fact that he was being _flirty_ with her. _Well ok then_. She couldn’t imagine Bee would ever betray Starscream in such a manner, so unless she was completely misinterpreting his shift in behaviour, she figured their relationship _must_ be open, and that they’d both seen the change in her position of authority as an opportunity to pursue her. Then she realised what was almost certainly happening: this was a coordinated attempt at seduction – they both wanted her, and they wanted her together. 

Windblade’s spark pulsed in excitement at the thought; it wasn’t a scenario she had considered before; for one her former position as their direct superior had made that sort of thing inappropriate, and they’d been so absorbed in each other that she didn’t think they’d ever look her way in that sense. Now that she was considering the possibility however, she found it alluring – Bee was completely lovely and a joy to be around in every respect, so she could only assume that interfacing with him would be as enjoyable as everything else with him was. As for interfacing with _Starscream_...it definitely wasn’t the sort of thing she would have ever seriously dreamed of even entertaining the thought of not all that long ago, but a lot had changed since then, and there was...a certain something about him. A certain incredibly frustrating, _magnetic_ thing. Bumblebee definitely considered him worth the time, that was for sure, and she tended to trust Bumblebee’s judgement. 

It had been a while since she’d fooled around with anyone, let alone two bots at once, and after all the physical, mental and emotional stress she’d been under pretty much since before she set out on her mission to find Cybertron, she felt that she deserved some attention. She received an invitation to have dinner with Starscream and Bee at their apartment, which was by no means unusual, she refuelled with them a lot these days, but this time she put in a bit of extra effort to polish her frame before turning up. She arrived and things proceeded the way they usually did, with good fuel and good conversation, but as the night went on the conversation took an increasingly flirtatious turn, and Starscream and Bee moved in closer to her as she provocatively flicked her wings and made innuendos of her own in response to their flirting. It wasn’t long before the suggestion to move things to their chambers came up, a suggestion she was happy to go along with.

Starscream and Bee lay her down in the middle on their shared recharge slab, which was big enough to accommodate them both and then some, and took places kneeling over her on the slab on either side. They started to gently caress her heating frame, their touches becoming increasingly adventurous as they traced her curves and dipped into her seams. She arched into their touches and moaned, not realising how badly she had wanted physical attention, affection and release until now that she was finally getting it. As her frame sung with pleasure under their skilled fingers and she gazed up at their attentive faces through half-shuttered optics, it occurred to her how all of this was even better because it was coming from these two bots in particular.

But then Starscream and Bumblebee’s attention was drawn from her as they caught one another’s optic, and while they didn’t move their hands from her frame, their caresses became more halting as they leaned over her to kiss one another. She’d seen them kiss before, but not like this – she'd thought the kisses they’d sometimes shared in public had bordered on obscene, but next to this hungry, sensual display, everything else she’d seen from them seemed chaste. But it wasn’t simply a lustful display – something about the way they kissed each other seemed so deeply emotionally intimate that it was as though it was a show of some whole other type of more profound obscenity. Windblade felt wrong – like she was a voyeur looking in on something secret and intimate that she could never understand and had no right to witness.

Then Bumblebee and Starscream broke apart, and after gazing at each other through a haze of adoration and lust for a moment more, they lay down on their sides so that their frames were pressed up against Windblade’s on either side of her. Starscream lifted the hand he had been using to caress her frame up to her face to turn it towards his own, and caught her mouth in a kiss. In that moment it somehow felt as though this was the inevitable outcome of every interaction they’d had since the day they met; the hostility, the threats, the bargains, the power plays, the rescues, the revelations – they were all part of a magnetic dance that had led them here. Windblade reached up to take a hold of Starscream’s head and push him closer to her as she hungrily returned his kiss.

She almost growled when Starscream eventually broke away from her, but before she could express her displeasure with him, Bumblebee leaned over and placed a sweet, gentle kiss on the corner of her mouth. She turned to face him and he granted her a fuller kiss, slowly and gently deepening it as she responded in kind. He kissed her in a way that somehow communicated so much affection and care; it made her feel safe, but it was by no means boring. While he gave her so much, there was also something so indulgent and sensual about the way he kissed her – as though, after being denied physical contact for so long, he now took as much pleasure from every moment of it that he possibly could. His deep sensuality heightened her own sensitivity, as Windblade found herself starting to savour each little stimulus the way Bee seemed to be, and her experience was made all the more pleasurable for it.

After that Windblade’s feeling of wrongness was washed away; in the empire of intimacy Starscream and Bumblebee had built together, she was an honoured guest for the night, and she was eager to receive all the hospitality they had to offer her. Thousands of years of experience had made Windblade very skilled in the art of interfacing, but Bumblebee and Starscream had millions of years of practice, and they gave her the best of what the thousands of millennia had taught them. That night Windblade learnt about Cybertronian cultural practices that she had been shamefully ignorant of as leader of the surviving Cybertronian population, and she was ready to compensate as much as necessary for her prior lack of attention to this aspect of the Cybertronian culture. 

As Windblade had expected, Bumblebee was an attentive, fun and loving partner, who was also one of the most deeply sensual bots she’d ever had the pleasure of plugging into. Starscream, completely unsurprisingly, _loved_ to tease her in every way he possibly could, but he had his enormous ego that he actually tried to live up to, along with his urge to show off, so when the payoff he promised finally came, it was actually worth the excruciating build up. Into the night however, Bumblebee gently chided Starscream for his endless teasing and egotistical air, and gave him a look that seemed to communicate a reminder of something they’d previously discussed. After that, with some initial hesitation that betrayed a degree of nervousness, Starscream became tenderer with Windblade, touching her in a way that communicated genuine affection in concert with a vulnerable desire to have it reciprocated. Windblade felt as though some unspoken thing that had been buried between them since before Starscream had thought to have been lost to Unicron was finally being brought to the surface, and she welcomed it by returning his tender touches.

Pressed up against and plugged into Starscream and Bumblebee’s frames, the numerous worries of Windblade’s role as leader felt so many worlds away, as the pleasure that consumed her left her with little opportunity to feel or think about anything else. During her first overload it felt as though all the stress she’d accrued since she’d become leader was being annihilated in a wave of brilliant bright ecstasy brought on by both the skilful and attentive ministrations of two bots she adored and the knowledge that they valued her enough to take such good care of her.

Then all the other overloads she had for the rest of the evening were all very, _very_ nice as well.

When the three of them were finally spent, they found it a little tricky fitting together to recharge; Starscream and Bumblebee’s recharge slab was large, but not large enough for three bots with either door-wings or regular wings to spread out. Then it was hard for even two bots to find a comfortable way to accommodate each other’s kibble while cuddling, let alone three. But ultimately they were all so tired that they managed to fall into recharge just sort of haphazardly piled on top of each other. When they woke up the next day their stiff and aching frames caused them some regrets over this, but they didn’t regret anything else that had happened that night.

Windblade had assumed that the night they shared together had been a fun fling with friends that might hopefully see a repeat at some point in future, but beyond that she hadn’t thought it had fundamentally altered the nature of her relationship with them. However, after that point she found Starscream and Bee including her in their lives even more than before. She was now invited to be involved in the free time they spent together more often than not, and when she was with both or either of them she found herself receiving many of the same tender touches they shared with each other. When they were together and Bee said something sweet and romantic to Starscream (which always made Starscream cringe, but both Windblade and Bee could tell that he secretly enjoyed it), he would now usually follow up by saying something similar to Windblade, or he would simply address them both with his romantic sentiments at once. Starscream had own his ideas about expressing romantic feelings, which Windblade now found herself on the receiving end of as well. This tended to involve Starscream giving her elaborate gifts, complimenting her cunning, commenting on how well they worked together and the glory they’d bring each other, and promising to destroy her enemies. Windblade kept having to remind him that she’d appreciate him trying to win over her enemies a lot more. Also, there was definitely more interfacing.

Windblade relished the all the romantic affection and attention she was now receiving, and she felt her already substantial fondness for Starscream and Bee swell even more. However, underneath all the joy and tenderness she felt, she couldn’t help but feel like an intruder. After what Bumblebee and Starscream had gone through together as phantoms who only had each other for company, becoming privy to one another’s innermost thoughts, not to mention their shared experience of four million years of war prior, Windblade didn’t see how she could ever be as close to them as they were to each other. It made her feel alienated, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She didn’t want to lose what she now had with them, but she didn’t want to feel like an outsider in the midst of a romance she was meant to be a part of.

She had been considering whether she should tell Starscream and Bee how she felt when she found Bee sitting by himself, looking morose. Compelled to ease whatever troubled him, she sat down beside him and asked him what was wrong. 

Bumblebee sighed, “Starscream and I had a fight, so yeah, nothing unusual there, but...I don’t think Starscream is off on one of his usual sulks. There’s something really bothering him, and I can usually get him to tell me what it is, but this time...I think it has something to do with when he patched into your mind to save you from Vigilem. He made a comment about how we wouldn’t be arguing if he was ‘made right’; I know you showed him what he would have looked like forged when that happened, but I know there’s more to it. Starscream’s always had trouble explaining to me exactly what happened during your link, so I don’t know how to address it...do you think you could talk to him?”

Windblade was a bit surprised by the request, “I can definitely try Bee, but I don’t know if he’d tell me if he won’t tell you. You know him better than anyone, and he loves and trusts you. You were the one who helped him change into the better person he is now.”

Bumblebee smiled at her faintly, “It wasn’t just me; you did so much to inspire and encourage him to try and be better than who he was. I was so thankful to have you there while I was struggling to get Starscream to do the right thing as leader. Even though you couldn’t see me or hear me I still felt so close to you, because in a way we were going through the same thing,” he took her hand and squeezed it as he gazed at her lovingly.

Windblade gazed back at Bee, and in that moment she felt closer to him than she ever had before, as she understood the deep, shared sentiment in their sparks that had compelled them to walk parallel paths in the way they each pushed Starscream to be better, “I’ll go speak to him,” she said, before she pressed a soft, sweet kiss to Bee’s lips. When she broke away Bee gazed at her thankfully, looking far better than he had before she’d spoken to him. 

Bumblebee suggested a few places Windblade might find Starscream, and eventually she came across him on a beach Bee had mentioned. She was surprised to find him on a beach given how much he hated sand, but he was there sitting on it, allowing it to work its way into his joints and vents, as he stared out over the ocean looking distant and melancholy. She transformed and alighted nearby, and he didn’t look at her as she sat down next to him. 

“Bumblebee’s worried about you,” she told him gently.

“Of course he is,” Starscream muttered, “he’s always worried about someone. That’s what he does.”

“I’m worried about you too,” she added earnestly.

“Yes well, that’s what you do as well, it’s what you both do because you’re both so caring and empathic and _good_. I’m sure the two of you had a very mushy conversation about how worried and upset you were. Don’t bother trying to come to me for commiseration though, I wouldn’t understand,” Starscream said bitterly.

Windblade got the impression that Starscream was more upset with himself than anyone else right now, and she resolved to get to the bottom of it, “Why are you so sure you wouldn’t understand?” she asked him.

Starscream looked at her, and there was resentment in his optics, but she was sure that it wasn’t for her, “Because I’m not like you, and I’m not like Bumblebee either. Maybe I could have been like the two of you once, but it’s too late for that now.”

“Starscream...is this about how you were built?” she asked, doing her best to tread lightly.

Starscream’s face twitched, and when he spoke there was now a drop of venom in his voice, “ _You_ showed me what I could have been, and for a time I deluded myself into thinking that I still had a chance to become that, but it’s too late, the damage is done. I’ve done things that can never be taken back, and the core of who I am is irrevocably tainted and ugly. You showed me a possibility that’s now closed off from me forever, and all I can think about is a standard I’ll never live up to. That person I can never be is who Bumblebee deserves, who you deserve. But at least you have each other I guess.”

All the time that Windblade had felt alienated by Starscream and Bumblebee’s intimacy, she had never considered that Starscream may have also felt alienated as the, well, ‘bad guy’ in their relationship. Former bad guy. Now that she thought about it however, she could understand why he’d feel that way, after all, it was only earlier that day that Windblade had recognised the deep bond that connected her with Bumblebee based on the fundamental traits they shared. But she didn’t want Starscream to feel alienated any more than she wanted to feel that way herself, “Starscream, I wouldn’t have been able to forge that version of you from your spark if that potential didn’t still exist somewhere inside you. What I showed you was your truth, and your truth is fundamental to who you are; it can’t be taken away by the people who forced you into a frame of their choosing, or by the people who hurt you, or by your mistakes. It’s always there, regardless of how much slag conceals it, and you always have the choice to continuously reforge yourself until you finally reach it.”

“I’ll tell you what my truth is,” Starscream said, both venom and pain in his voice. “It’s true that I’ve killed more people than you’ve ever even met. It’s true that I’ve helped wipe out entire species and civilizations. It’s true that I’ve betrayed people who liked and trusted me. I’ve hurt people and sometimes enjoyed it. _I’ve tortured Bumblebee_ ,” his voice cracked at the last part and he was no longer able to look at her.

Windblade was silent for a few moments; she’d known that Starscream and Bumblebee had been enemies for four million years and tried to kill each other multiple times, but she hadn’t known that exact detail. She had, abstractly, known about the rest, but it was still confronting to have it laid out like that, especially by Starscream. As she had grown closer to Starscream over the years, she had struggled with these facts about him, but although they still sometimes troubled her, she had found her ways to reconcile them with how she felt about him, which she decided to share, “Starscream, I used to be terrified of becoming like you, and every day I still struggle with the fear that I’ll slip and become the very things I fight against. But seeing the potential that exists within you, and watching you change to become closer and closer to what you can be, has given me so much hope. Seeing you fight back your darkness after circumstances allowed it to consume you so much has given me hope that I can fight back my own darkness. Because we’re not fundamentally different Starscream; you, me, Bumblebee – we’ve all got something within us trying to pull us down, but we each had different circumstances that impacted how far that thing was able to drag us. 

“You may have hurt and killed many more people than Bumblebee, but Bumblebee has hurt and killed a lot more people than I have. And yes, I know that’s because you’re both much older than I am, and lived through a war, but even though you two have those things in common, there were many other things separating your circumstances. Bumblebee didn’t have to survive being around Megatron almost every day, for a start. I’m not saying what you did was justified Starscream, I’m saying that I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same things if I had lived your life.”

Starscream gave a sad and weary sigh, “But you haven’t, have you? That’s the whole point. What does it matter what made me do the things I’ve done when what _really_ matters is the fact that I’ve done them and can’t undo them? I can spend every moment of the future trying to be better, but none of that will change the past.”

Windblade fixed Starscream with an intense gaze as she spoke from the depths of her spark, “Starscream, I hope that the future will be a very, very long time for all of us, longer than the lives we’ve already lived, but the longer we live the more time we have to make huge mistakes. You may have a lot more on your conscience compared to Bee and I right now, but who knows how the scales may have tipped in another four million years? Or another forty million? Who’s to say I won’t have caused the most pain out of us by then? But the thing is, I really don’t want to cause anyone pain if I can help it, and that’s part of the reason why I need you – you've already made the mistakes I’m afraid of making, so I need you to guide me to prevent me from making them myself. I need your wisdom. I’m sorry that you ended up being the one who had to go through the pain of earning the wisdom that the rest of us can benefit from, but I don’t think what you’ve gone through makes you fundamentally tainted or unlovable. I think that you’ve been able to go through all that and still try to be better every day makes you incredible.”

Starscream stared at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read, but when he turned his gaze back to the ocean and spoke with a far more flippant tone she knew she had gotten through to him, “Well you definitely need all the help you can get. I'm still not entirely sure how a veritable protoform with a processor full of fairy-tale ideals ended up as the leader of our entire species.”

Windblade grinned, “You gave me the job, remember?”

Starscream shook his head, “I blame Bumblebee for that.” His tone then turned sad and bitter again, “I still don’t understand how he can want me.”

They’d gotten somewhere, but they weren’t out of the woods yet, as the humans would say, “Do you love Bumblebee?” Windblade asked. She wasn’t entirely sure how Starscream would respond – he had a hard time with words as raw and direct as ‘love’. 

Starscream’s lips twitched as he struggled for a moment, before he responded with rare earnestness, “I would burn the universe a trillion times over if it made that stupid little Autobot smile.”

“I don’t think it would,” Windblade pointed out.

“Ugh, I know. He has no appreciation for romantic gestures,” Starscream said, and Windblade was a bit unsure as to what degree that response was meant to be a joke.

“Do you think someone fundamentally tainted and wrong could love someone as much as you love him?” Windblade asked him softly.

Starscream was quiet for a moment before he shrugged, “How would I know?”

“Does what you feel for him feel wrong?” she asked.

“No. Absolutely not,” Starscream said, suddenly adamant. 

“And wouldn’t you want someone to feel the same way about you?” Windblade continued.

Starscream was quiet again for a moment before he slowly responded, “Someone...does feel that way about me.”

“ _Exactly._ So stop being so overdramatic about how fundamentally unlovable you are and get off your aft and _go to him_ ,” Windblade commanded him, suddenly making the switch from a gentle and concerned lover to a fed up and stern one.

Starscream raised an optic ridge at her before he turned his face away to stick his nose in the air without giving her any further response. Ok, now he was done being miserable and was deciding to be irritating instead. He would probably stop soon once the urge to make up with Bee overwhelmed his urge to give her a hard time, but still...

...she stood up and waded into the ocean up to her ankles, and then turned around and kicked a spray of water at him.

“What the frag?!” Starscream cursed as he dripped with seawater. 

“You’re being annoying, and unfortunately you’ve rubbed off on me,” she said with a smirk.

Windblade gave a yelp as he tackled her into the ocean, and they wrestled there for a couple of minutes, creating turbulent waves in what had been a calmly lapping sea, before they both broke down in laughter. They then flew back so that Starscream and Bee could reconcile, and then had to explain why their frames were gunked up with salt and sand. Bumblebee was more than happy to help them both clean themselves off, and a good few hours later they were slumped over each other on the recharge slab, finally spent and in a state where they’d need to go back to the washracks before they could go anywhere else. 

As they lay there together, Windblade realised that she no longer felt any of the alienation she often started to feel post-interface with Starscream and Bee. She’d found a place of security and belonging in her relationship with them; she now understood that she and Bee had a bond forged from their shared compassion and belief that people could be better, and the way it had compelled them both to help Starscream change. She had seen Starscream’s true self and come to understand how they shared important things in common, and how they needed each other to help fulfil their ambitions without falling to their darkness. Windblade recognised that Starscream and Bumblebee shared a deep and cosmic connection, but she no longer felt alienated by that, instead she was just thrilled to be included in it.

While Starscream and Bumblebee still went out on missions, they started to become more involved in The Council, their prior political experience, in addition to their successes on their missions, helping them gain influence until they were amongst some of the more powerful voices in government. The Council was made up of both Windblade’s supporters and dissenters, and Starscream and Bumblebee were very much amongst her supporters, but they didn’t follow her unquestioningly, and would voice their disagreements and offer suggestions to her, and she would listen. While Windblade was still The Council’s First Delegate, Starscream and Bumblebee had so much input that she often felt as though the three of them were ruling together. Windblade had found ruling very hard, and Starscream and Bumblebee had each struggled with its hardships when they had been in her place, but now that the three of them were helping one another, it seemed they’d found a way to make it work.

Starscream and Bumblebee helped Windblade work, and they also helped her play. Her life became so much less stressful not only because they were there supporting her as she led their civilization, but also because they were there in her off-hours helping her unwind and have fun. Their support was both practical and emotional, and her entire state of being was so much better for it, and in turn so was the state of their world. Windblade found it so much easier to be a fair, productive and innovative leader when she was in a good state of mind, body and spark. The closer she became with Starscream and Bee, the more they started to treat each other’s homes as their own, which proved to be especially lucky at one point when a radical dissident cell attacked Windblade’s apartment while she was recharging at Starscream and Bee’s place (it had taken a lot to talk Starscream down from making a very gory example of her would-be assassins). They even eventually found a way to fit together comfortably as they shared a recharge slab. 

When the three of them interfaced, they often let their whims and passions guide them, and each of them would get a roughly equal amount of attention. Sometimes however, they would decide on a particular bot to be the centre of attention beforehand, or it would just work out that two of them would decide to gang up on the third during the course of things. On one such occasion after Windblade had found herself worked especially hard by her two playmates, she feebly stretched her very satisfied and slightly aching frame and weakly asked, “So...who’s idea was it to seduce me into joining this madhouse exactly?”

Bumblebee raised his head from where it had been resting in the crook of her body and smirked, “Oh I’ve been planning this since I was trapped in Infraspace,” he said, before Starscream lifted his hand and Bee high-fived him with a grin.

After so much of her government’s efforts had been focused on building up the basic infrastructure of a functioning, integrated society following all that had been lost to Unicron, Windblade felt that it was time to provide something purely fun for her people. After Starscream told her that one of his unrealised plans as leader had been to rebuild the old Cybertronian amusement park Six Lasers, Windblade decided that it wasn’t too late for that to go ahead. They managed to pass the decision by The Council, and it wasn’t long after that the three of them were attending the opening night of the newly built park. 

Amusement parks hadn’t been a big part of Windblade’s life – the last one on Caminus was closed down when she was young for being too much of an energy drain, while the alien worlds she’d occasionally been able to visit didn’t have parks that were built to accommodate beings like herself. Velocitron had a few that she’d been hoping to find the opportunity to visit, but Unicron had permanently shelved those plans. As a result, she didn’t know a whole lot about amusement parks and so she hadn’t had much contribution to the discussion of what the new Six Lasers would include – she'd decided to leave that up to bots with more experience in these matters. When she arrived at the park on opening night, she only had a vague idea of what to expect, so when she saw the fully completed attractions she was giddy with excitement to learn about each one and give every novel experience a try.

Bumblebee and Starscream were both excited as well – they’d both visited the original Six Lasers when they were young, all the way back before the Autobot/Decepticon war began, and they were keen to relive enjoyable experiences from those relatively innocent times. The new Six Lasers involved a bunch of new attractions, some which had been modelled after attractions from colony amusement parks that were now lost, and some were entirely new creations. They’d had a competition inviting people to submit designs for new rides and attractions at the park, and they’d had a number of very interesting submissions, including several extremely alarming ones from Brainstorm, and one from Nautica that made Windblade worry about how much Brainstorm was rubbing off on her. Eventually they’d awarded prizes to four fresh, creative designs that pointedly didn’t involve time travel, spark extraction, or summoning trans-dimensional eldritch abominations, and these extremely fun yet most assuredly safe – to both park attendees and the fabric of reality itself – attractions were built ready for the opening night.

The thing that got Bumblebee and Starscream most excited however was the fact that a bunch of the popular attractions from the original Six Lasers had been recreated as well. Both of them had memories and stories attached to many of these old attractions – Bee said that when he was really young, he’d always put aside a little bit of his courier’s pay so by the end of each decade he’d have enough to take his friends with him to Six Lasers for the day. They always finished up their day out together by riding the Technicolour Oscillator, and with a laugh Bee remembered when his friend Hubcap – who'd had a crush on him at the time – had tried to kiss him during the dark part of the ride, only to accidentally kiss his other friend Cliffjumper instead. His two friends had ended up dating for two centuries after that, and it wasn’t until even later that Bee found out the kiss that Cliffjumper received had been intended for him. When the three of them rode the new Technicolour Oscillator together, Windblade and Starscream both leaned over during dark part of the ride to plant a kiss on the minibot sitting between them. This time that minibot was indeed Bumblebee.

A lot of Starscream’s Six Lasers stories were about getting thrown out of Six Lasers, usually for trying to sell something questionable to the patrons, or otherwise trying to pull off some other type of scheme of tenuous at best legality. At one point not too long before joining the Decepticons he had taken Skywarp and Thundercracker there to try and smooth things over after he’d done something to upset them, and together they’d ridden the River of Mysterix. Skywarp had dared Thundercracker to drink some of the oil from the river, and after Thundercracker had done it to shut him up something funny had happened to his processor and Starscream and Skywarp had to spend the rest of the day chasing him down as he flew around screeching that he was Lord of the Celestial Scraplets.

They ended up taking almost every ride, and Windblade insisted on going on the Titanic Turner twice, which she’d decided was favourite for a variety of reasons including the fact it was full of (relatively) little models of Titans (particularly Metroplex) doing various hilariously cutesy and domestic things. They’d also sampled all kinds of fuels, oils, and energon candies prepared in styles from all the various regions and eras of Cybertron, as well as all the colonies. The Devisen Twin-Pops had seemed a bit difficult to share among three people, but Starscream pointed out that they’d made good use of two ‘pops’ between the three of them before, at which point Windblade had decided to forcefully stuff a handful of Teledonian Treats in his mouth to shut him up in front of the vendor. 

There were games and competitions for prizes, although Windblade refused to participate in any that involved sharp-shooter skills in front of Starscream and Bumblebee (mostly in front of Starscream). One of the games was an obstacle course which had a gaudy toy crown, cape and sceptre set, all adorned with flashing lights, as a prize, and Bee had insisted on trying to win it for Starscream. Starscream had scoffed at the suggestion, but after Bee had expertly navigated past all the obstacles with the skill of a veteran who had been dodging enemy artillery for the last four million years and won the prize on his first try, Starscream’s optics had glowed with pride as Bee rushed over with his winnings. 

“My champion,” Starscream said with a smirk, although Windblade could swear she heard more sincerity than sarcasm in his tone.

“ _My liege_ ,” replied Bumblebee theatrically before he gave Starscream a cheeky grin. He then held the toy crown out in front of him and looked at Starscream expectantly, before Starscream dropped to one knee with an expression of over-exaggerated gravitas. Bee adopted the same mock-solemn tone as his placed the gaudy, flashing crown on Starscream’s head, before scooting around behind to clip the cape – lined with more frantically flashing lights – to Starscream’s shoulders. He moved back to the front and then bowed dramatically as he used both hands to present Starscream with the sceptre, which was topped with a flashing gem in the shape of the Cybertronian symbol for romantic love. Starscream took the spectre and stood up, adorned in the ridiculous costume that continued to flash brightly and obnoxiously in all the boldest colours, and then struck his most dramatic pose. Bumblebee broke out in enthusiastic applause while Windblade broke down in a fit of giggles. 

“I will of course submit my authority to your own,” Windblade said as she gave a low bow. “The choice of the people means nothing next to what Bumblebee deems to be so, after all.”

“Well, Bumblebee is far wiser than the people, so it’s only fair,” Starscream replied, as Bee gave a thoughtful look before nodding along in agreement. “It is with a grave sense of responsibility I lift the burden of leadership from your shoulders Windblade – you can be assured that I will take good care of you and Bee as you enjoy your newfound freedom.”

Starscream gently booped her on nose with the top of his sceptre as he spoke, and Windblade laughed with gleeful abandon, on some level feeling almost as though their game was real and that she really had been freed from the responsibilities of leadership for that night. She considered how Starscream could have interpreted this whole thing as a way of mocking him and his past actions and aspirations, and given how paranoid he used to be (and still was in many respects), not that long ago he probably would have. But it went to show how much he had come to trust the two of them, and how deep the understanding between the three of them ran, that he interpreted the gesture and jokes for what they were rather than what his paranoia would probably suggest. They weren’t a way to mock who he was or used to be, but were a way of playfully expressing how much Windblade and Bee wanted to give him the things he desired. The universe at large was cruel and apathetic to their dreams, and few people knew them truly well enough to understand the important intricacies of who they were and what they meant to each other. But the private world the three of them shared was caring and understanding, where they could be to each other the things the outer universe wouldn’t allow them to officially be.

Starscream insisted on winning prizes for his ‘subjects’, and eventually Windblade found herself carrying around a life-sized toy turbofox made out of soft, cuddly mesh, which Starscream had picked out in his own colours. Bumblebee ended up with a little projector charm that very appropriately simulated a little hologram of an Earth bumblebee, which circled above his head, chasing a holographic shooting star. They’d also collected all kinds of magnetic stickers from various stalls along the way, which had ended up stuck all over their wings and door-wings, while Windblade had got them a bunch of balloons, because she’d had the sense that was a very important part of the overall experience.

Towards the end of the night the three of them found a spot on the ground to sit and watch the light show. Windblade and Starscream let their wings fold back behind them so they could sit pressed up close to each other, while Bumblebee splayed himself out over their laps. The light show then began – a gorgeous display that lit up the night sky with energon rockets, dancing drones, artful holograms, and even Earth fireworks. As Windblade watched the spectacular show with Starscream and Bumblebee’s plating pressed against her own, riding the high the events of the night had put her on, she came to the realisation of how fiercely and deeply she loved these two bots who had welcomed her into their world. Windblade had a loving and compassionate nature, and felt a measure of love for all the people she truly came to call friends. Sometimes it took her a while to realise when these feelings of affection had evolved into the more intense and deeply personal feelings of true romantic love she’d only ever felt for a select few. She didn’t know for sure at what point these two bots who had been her dear friends, advisors and playmates had become her sparkmates, but in that moment she knew without a doubt that she loved them both as much as she could love anything.

“I love you. Both of you,” she told them as her optics sparkled with both the light of the show above them and the feelings of joy and adoration within her.

Bee looked up at her with that adorably earnest and loving expression of his and said, “We love you too.”

“What he said,” Starscream added, pointedly staring at the light show rather than running the risk of locking optics with any gooey, romantic gazes.

Windblade laughed at Starscream’s continued shyness in the face of sincere, direct expressions of affection, before she playfully bumped her shoulder against his and asked, “So how many times would you burn the universe for me?”

Starscream turned away from the display in the sky to look at her as he smiled his most openly loving smile and spoke in his most honest, sparkfelt voice, “As many as it takes. For both of you.”

Windblade sat with her two treasured lovers, feeling adored, contented and happier than she’d been in longer than she could remember. She was certain enough of her enduring love for both of them that she would have asked them both to be her conjunxes without any doubt or hesitation, if it weren’t for the fact that she didn’t think their new society had an established tradition for triple conjunxes, or whatever they should be called. Ah well, she was the leader of their civilization, she could do something about that eventually, but in the meantime it didn’t really matter that they weren’t officially bonded. She knew she loved them both as much as she possibly could, and she knew they loved her back; they understood that they belonged together, and that understanding was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> The Six Lasers part was inspired by [Aurobot](https://auro-bot.tumblr.com/)'s piece for the TFSnapshots Zine.
> 
> And that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my Starbee Week fics, I'll have some more stuff up in a couple of months <3


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